OPNAV 1650/3 Personal Award Recommendation: Citation and NDAWS Submission

To fill out OPNAV 1650/3, the Navy’s Personal Award Recommendation form, work from the September 2023 revision, complete every administrative block using data pulled directly from the nominee’s personnel record, write a Summary of Action that gives reviewers concrete facts tied to the award criteria, draft the proposed citation in the exact format prescribed for that award level, and route the package through the Navy Department Awards Web Service before the submission deadline runs out. Most packages that get returned fail on one of these steps rather than on the merits of what the sailor or marine did.

Start With the Current Version of the Form

The version in force is OPNAV 1650/3 (Rev. SEP 23), announced by NAVADMIN 248/23.¹ Blank fillable PDFs are on the Defense Logistics Agency forms site at forms.documentservices.dla.mil, and most commands also keep copies on a local admin portal. If your command uses NDAWS for electronic initiation, the system generates the form fields once you select “Start Personal Award Recommendation” through the BUPERS On-Line portal at bol.navy.mil.² Earlier versions of the form will be rejected, so verify the revision date before you start typing.

Complete the Administrative Blocks

Errors in the biographical and routing fields are the fastest way to get a package kicked back during screening. Pull every data point from the nominee’s official personnel record rather than from memory or a command roster.

Nominee Information

Enter the nominee’s full legal name and rank exactly as they appear in the master personnel file. Verify which service identification number your command’s version of the form requests; the Navy has been transitioning from Social Security Numbers to DoD ID numbers on many personnel forms. Include the rate or military occupational specialty and any applicable designator codes. The awards manual references two-letter codes used on the form for this purpose.³

Award Type and Period

Designate the specific decoration recommended: Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal, Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medal, Meritorious Service Medal, and so on. The “Period of Award” block marks the start and end dates of the meritorious service, or the date of the specific act. Only one decoration can be awarded for the same act, achievement, or period of service, so the dates cannot cover a stretch already recognized by another personal award.⁴ The “Action Date” field captures the specific day the heroism or achievement occurred.

Unit and Routing Information

Enter the unit identification code and the details of the awarding authority who will review the package. If the recommendation involves combat valor, a posthumous award, or requires a specific combat device, mark the appropriate blocks; these trigger additional oversight and evidentiary requirements. Block 24 for Navy submissions is where you list all other personnel involved in the same action, a step routinely overlooked in valor nominations.³

Write the Summary of Action

The Summary of Action is the narrative justification, and it carries the case. Reviewers up the chain have no firsthand knowledge of the nominee, so the SOA is the only evidence they will read.

The awards manual requires the SOA to include “sufficient facts and details to enable reviewing and approving authorities the ability to compare the actions to established award criteria and previously approved awards.”³ That means specific examples of what the nominee did, how they did it, and the measurable results. If a sailor redesigned a maintenance tracking system, say how many labor hours it saved and what the readiness impact was in dollars. If a marine led a training evolution, describe its scope and what the unit gained. Vague praise about “outstanding leadership” without concrete details is the hallmark of a weak package.

Higher Standard for Valor SOAs

A Summary of Action for a valor recommendation is held to a much higher evidentiary standard. The manual prescribes a detailed checklist that must appear in the narrative:

Type of mission and specific location
Time of day and time zone
Terrain and weather conditions
Size and disposition of both friendly and enemy forces
The nominee’s role within the formation
Type and volume of enemy fire encountered
Friendly and enemy casualties
Whether the nominee voluntarily left a position of comparative safety without being ordered to do so
Whether the nominee was wounded before, during, or after the heroic act³

Every assertion in a valor SOA must be substantiated by sworn, notarized eyewitness statements from at least two witnesses.⁵ Information from the nominee cannot form the factual basis for a heroism decoration. Unsigned or un-notarized eyewitness statements, and mismatched dates between the form, citation, and witness statements, are among the most common errors that stall valor packages.³

Draft the Proposed Citation

The proposed citation is a condensed, formal version of the SOA written for public reading at a ceremony and for permanent placement in the service record. Each award level has a mandatory opening phrase, a mandatory closing sentence, and strict formatting constraints. Get any of these wrong and the package comes back.

Format by Award Level

Higher-level awards such as the Legion of Merit and Meritorious Service Medal use portrait layout with natural (upper and lower case) capitalization, Courier New font at 12 pitch, and a maximum of 23 lines (roughly 1,650 characters). Lower-level awards such as the Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medal and Achievement Medal use landscape layout with all capital letters, Times New Roman font at 10 pitch, and a maximum of 8 lines (roughly 1,250 characters).⁶

Every citation must begin with the prescribed opening language for that decoration. For a Commendation Medal, the opening reads: “MERITORIOUS SERVICE WHILE SERVING AS (BILLET TITLE), (UNIT), FROM (MONTH AND YEAR) TO (MONTH AND YEAR).” The closing follows a pattern recognizing the member’s traits and their reflection of credit upon the naval service.⁶ Between the opening and closing, space is very limited. Write tightly, avoid acronyms, and choose each word for impact. This text becomes the permanent historical record.

Decide Whether a V or C Device Applies

If the recommendation involves combat, you may need to request a “V” (Valor) device or a “C” (Combat Condition) device. These are not interchangeable.

V Device

The V device recognizes a specific act of heroism while engaged in direct combat with an enemy force, with exposure to hostilities and personal risk. It is authorized only on certain decorations: the Distinguished Flying Cross, Bronze Star Medal, Air Medal (individual action basis only, not strike/flight awards), Joint Service Commendation Medal, and Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medal. It is not authorized on the Medal of Honor, Navy Cross, Silver Star, Legion of Merit, or Achievement Medal.⁵

The V device is no longer authorized on end-of-tour or end-of-deployment awards, or any award recognizing a period of meritorious service. It applies only to awards for specific acts of valor. The Bronze Star, Air Medal, and Commendation Medal may be awarded with a V device for an accumulation of multiple lesser acts of valor in separate combat engagements, but historical practice limits this to no more than three distinct actions combined in a single decoration, and the nomination must list the specific dates of each action rather than a general time period.⁵

C Device

The C device denotes meritorious achievement or service performed under combat conditions. It covers sustained service in a combat environment rather than a specific heroic act, and eligibility ties to designated operations. Commands submitting classified valor or combat-condition nominations should contact the Navy Department Board of Decorations and Medals at SECNAV_awards@navy.mil or (202) 685-6378 for handling procedures.⁷

Meet the Submission Deadlines

The Navy enforces firm deadlines. Missing them means either losing the recognition or navigating a waiver process that adds months to an already slow pipeline.

Standard personal decorations: the nomination must be originated and entered into official channels within three years of the act or end of the meritorious service period. The approval authority must take final action within two years of origination. Under no circumstances may an award be approved under delegated authority more than five years after the act or merit period.³
Valor awards: nominations should be originated within 45 days of the act. For units with limited deployed administrative support, the 45-day clock starts upon return to home base.³
Purple Heart and Combat Action Ribbon: no time limits apply for origination or final action.³

Late submissions outside these windows must follow the procedures in Chapter 8 of the awards manual, which requires additional justification for the delay.

Submit Through NDAWS

Most commands submit award packages electronically through the Navy Department Awards Web Service, accessed via the BUPERS On-Line portal at bol.navy.mil using a CAC-enabled Google Chrome browser. NDAWS supports the full lifecycle of a recommendation: electronic initiation, routing through the endorsement chain, review and modification of the award level, and final approval.⁸

Commands that are deployed or have unreliable connectivity can use a disconnected workflow. Fill out the OPNAV 1650/3 PDF, digitally sign it, and email it with a signed copy of the citation to the immediate superior in command or supporting command, who then uploads it into NDAWS using the “Submit PDF” feature.²

The recommendation must be addressed to the official in the nominee’s chain of command who holds the authority to approve the level of decoration recommended. An intermediate commander who lacks that authority must still forward the nomination upward; they can recommend a lower award but cannot stop the package from reaching the appropriate authority.³

Self-Audit Before You Send

The awards manual calls out several recurring errors that cause significant processing delays, particularly for valor nominations. Check the package against these before it leaves your desk:

Insufficient detail in the SOA. If the narrative doesn’t give reviewers enough factual basis to compare the actions against award criteria, the package stalls or gets downgraded.
Mismatched dates. The action dates on the OPNAV 1650/3 (Block 25), the citation, and the eyewitness statements must all agree. Discrepancies trigger a return for correction.
Missing personnel identification. Block 24 requires you to list all other service members involved in the same action. Omitting this is one of the top reasons valor packages come back.
Defective eyewitness statements. Statements must be signed by the witness and properly notarized.
Submitting a valor nomination for an extended period. The V device is for specific acts, not sustained service. A nomination that describes months of general combat duty instead of a discrete heroic event will be rejected or stripped of the valor designation.³

For non-valor awards, the frequent issues are simpler: wrong citation format for the award level, exceeding the character or line count, using acronyms in the citation text, and biographical data that doesn’t match official records. Fix these before submitting and the package will move.

1
MyNavyHR. NAVADMIN 248/23 – Announcement of OPNAV 1650/3 (Rev. SEP 23)
2
MyNavyHR. Navy Department Awards Web Service (NDAWS) User Guide
3
Department of the Navy. SECNAV M-1650.1 – Navy and Marine Corps Awards Manual
4
Marines.mil. Navy and Marine Corps Awards Manual
5
Department of the Navy. New Devices Authorized for Wear on Certain Military Medals and Ribbons
6
United States Marine Corps. Award Citation Mandatory Opening and Closing Sentences
7
U.S. Navy. Valor Awards and Timely Recognition of Acts of Valor
8
U.S. Navy. Navy Department Awards Web Service Moved and Modernized